Verdict strikes close to heart of Blagojevich administration

June 05, 2008|By Bob Secter and Jeff Coen | Tribune reporters

Antoin "Tony" Rezko, whose friendship and fundraising prowess helped shape the political careers of Gov. Rod Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, was convicted Wednesday of using his political clout to orchestrate a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme.

A federal jury found Rezko guilty on 16 of 24 counts in a trial that exposed an ingrained culture of corruption in Illinois government that has continued to flourish under Blagojevich and comes during a federal probe of his administration.The verdict in the state's biggest corruption trial since the 2006 conviction of former Gov. George Ryan challenged Blagojevich's claims of being a reformer. It also aggravated a nagging campaign headache for Obama just a day after he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.

Rezko shifted nervously in his seat moments before the verdict was announced, then blinked and glanced sideways toward the jury box as U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve began to read the jury's declaration that it had found him guilty.

Wearing a light olive suit and a red tie, Rezko had arrived in court flanked by his two sons. Noticeably absent was his wife, Rita, who had been present during most of the 10-week trial.

The 10-woman, two-man jury deliberated for parts of 13 days before convicting Rezko of abusing his clout with Blagojevich while scheming with Stuart Levine, a longtime Republican insider, to extort millions of dollars from firms seeking state business or regulatory approval. He was convicted of mail and wire fraud, aiding and abetting bribery and of money laundering. He was acquitted of attempted extortion.

U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald, whose office is leading a probe into Blagojevich's administration and the governor's personal finances, said he hoped the verdict would be a wake-up call for Illinois politicians.

"I hope people step back and say, 'When you do all that stuff, it's going to come back and bite you in a serious way,'" Fitzgerald said. "If the morals don't get to them, then I hope the fear of going to jail does."

Blagojevich, who swept to victory in 2002 with a pledge to clean up Illinois government after the Ryan years, has not been charged with any wrongdoing. But his name was invoked repeatedly during the trial as several witnesses said they heard him give an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the notion of steering state business to campaign donors.

In a brief appearance after the verdict, the governor read a statement expressing his "respect" for the verdict and his sadness for Rezko and his family. But Blagojevich said he was too busy trying to balance the state's budget to answer any questions.

The verdict also held implications for Obama, even though he had no connection to the charges.

Obama struggled during the Democratic presidential primaries to explain his long relationship with Rezko, including a real estate deal involving Obama's South Side house that the two entered into after Obama's 2004 election to the Senate. The jury's decision all but ensures that the Rezko issue will remain politically toxic for Obama heading into the general election battle with Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Just 20 minutes after the verdict was announced, the Republican National Committee churned out an e-mail news release referring to Rezko as Obama's "money man" and declaring that "Obama has maintained a friendship with a now convicted felon."

Like Blagojevich, Obama said he was "saddened" by the verdict. "This isn't the Tony Rezko I knew," Obama said.

Although Rezko had been free on a $8.5 million bail, he voluntarily surrendered to authorities after the verdict and said he wanted to begin serving his sentence immediately. St. Eve deferred a ruling on the length of his sentence until Sept. 3.

The verdict was hardly the end to Rezko's legal peril. He is scheduled to go on trial later this year in a separate federal fraud case involving his attempts to gain financing for an ailing chain of pizza restaurants he once owned. In addition, a judge in Las Vegas issued an arrest warrant last month for Rezko, accused of skipping out on $450,000 in gambling debts he ran up in 2006 even as he knew he was under federal scrutiny in Chicago.

The trial provided ample fodder for cynics who see Illinois' political insiders as a cozy club motivated more by greed than public service or ideology. Witnesses described a who's who of prominent Republicans and Democrats exploiting questionable state deals for financial gain.

Still, jurors said at a news conference after the verdict that they were not distracted by the parade of political heavy hitters, such as Blagojevich, whose names repeatedly surfaced during testimony.

"As a jury, we just tried to focus on the Rezko trial because that's what we were there for," said juror Mona Lisa Mauricette.